1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the farming field and, in particular, to a system, electronic monitor and method capable of using impulse radio technology to help a farmer better manage a farming operation.
2. Description of Related Art
In the farming field, one of the most significant design challenges involves the development of new ways of helping a farmer to automate or remotely operate farm equipment in an attempt to increase the productivity of a farming operation. A relatively small number of farming operations today use some sort of positioning system that enables the farmer to automate or remotely operate farm equipment such as a tractor, harvester or irrigation equipment. A vast majority of these traditional positioning systems utilize Global Positioning System (GPS) based technology.
The traditional GPS positioning system determines a xe2x80x9croughxe2x80x9d approximation of the location of a particular piece of farm equipment on a farm. This xe2x80x9croughxe2x80x9d approximation of the position of a piece of farm equipment can be within 5-10 meters which can lead to problems when automatically or remotely operating the farm equipment. For example, a harvester is operated most efficiently when one end of a cutter mechanism slightly overlaps a crop line between cut crop and uncut crop. If there is no overlap, an uncut strip of crop is left in the field and, on the other hand, if the overlap is to great the maximum width of crop is not cut. Of course, if the location of a remotely operated harvester is off due to the xe2x80x9croughxe2x80x9d approximation of the GPS based technology, then it is likely that the harvester while either over cut or undercut the crops.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system, electronic monitor and method that can accurately track a position of a piece of farm equipment such as a tractor or harvester as it moves around a farm. In addition, there is also a need for a system, electronic monitor and method that can remotely or automatically control one or more pieces of farm equipment. These needs and other needs are solved by the system, electronic monitor and method of the present invention.
The present invention includes a system, electronic monitor and method all of which utilize impulse radio technology to enable a farmer to accurately track a position of an object (e.g., farm equipment, farm animal, farm employee) as the object moves around a farm and/or to enable a farmer to monitor a variety of parameters associated with the moving farm equipment. In addition, the system, electronic monitor and method can utilize impulse radio technology to help control either remotely or automatically one or more pieces of farm equipment.